Ladies' Choice
by hufflepuffdaydreamer
Summary: It is Lily Evans' last year at Hogwarts, and there is going to be the usual Spring Dance. This year, though, the dance is Ladies' Choice! Rated T just to be safe.
1. The Invitation

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot. Sigh. If only, if only.**

Lily Evans groaned as she looked at the notice board in the Gryffindor common room. It clearly stated the end of the world.

_SPRING DANCE_

_Ladies' Choice_

_Open to Sixth Years and Above_

_Tickets Go On Sale This Week_

_Purchase them for 1 Galleon Each in the Great Hall_

The only thing that didn't necessarily mean her doom was that Jam- _Potter!_ She mentally corrected herself. Potter didn't get to pester her about the dance! Ha! She skipped out of the portrait hole to the Great Hall for breakfast, feeling much better.

At breakfast, Lily sat at the Gryffindor table, determinedly avoiding the stare that was boring into the side of her head. James Potter was sitting down the table from her, and was trying to catch her eye. Across the table from Lily, her two best friends Alice and Mary were talking about the Spring Dance. Lily gratefully immersed herself in their conversation.

"So, Alice, are you going to ask Frank to the dance?" asked Mary, rather loudly. "After all, we all know how much you fancy him." Mary was a tall black girl, with rather fierce looking black eyes. She did not fear much, and was not learned in the art of subtlety.

"Shh! He might hear you!" whispered Alice, who, unlike Mary, was rather timid when it came to boys. Alice was short with a round face, but was still very pretty with blue eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. Alice glanced fearfully over at the neighboring Hufflepuff table, but Frank Longbottom did not seem to have heard Mary's loud inquiry.

"How about you, Lily?" asked Mary. "Fancy confessing your undying love for James and begging him to come to the dance with you?"

Lily raised her wand threateningly. "If you ever even _imply_ that I fancy Potter again, I will hex you bald." Mary raised her hands in surrender and Lily helped herself to some bacon.

"What about you, Mary?" asked Alice. "You must have some idea of who you would like to ask."

"Of course," said Mary. "I plan on asking- well, never mind. You'll find out soon enough."

As much as Lily and Alice begged, they could not get Mary to tell them who she was going to ask. Soon, Lily had to go to Potions, and Alice and Mary had a free period. On the way to the dungeons, she caught the rather unpleasant of Narcissa Black and Lucius Malfoy making out behind a statue. Malfoy was groping black, and it was obvious that one of them had just been asked to the dance. Lily snorted in disgust. Luckily, Malfoy didn't notice, or she would have been hit with an Unforgivable before she could blink.

Lily sat down in her usual spot in the potions classroom. She saw Snape enter the room behind her and quickly started unpacking her bag, and consequentially, was surprised to hear a soft voice say from next to her, "Hello, Lily."

Lily jumped, looked around, and her eyes fell on Remus, one of her best friends. "Oh, hello, Remus. How are you?"

"All right, I suppose. Have you asked anyone to the dance yet?"

Lily groaned. Was the dance ALL that anyone could talk about?

"I'll take that as a no," said Remus, with a small smile on his face. "You had better hurry, you know. The dance is only a week and a half away."

"But there's not anyone that I want to ask!" exclaimed Lily.

Remus looked like he wanted to say something, but at that moment Slughorn bounced in, and all chance to talk was extinguished.

Later, during a free period that Lily shared with Mary, Alice, and, unfortunately, the Marauders, Lily and Alice were pestering Mary, still trying to figure out who she wanted to ask.

"Do you really want to know?" asked Mary, with a sort of smirk on her face. Lily and Alice nodded vigorously. "All right, then," said Mary, and she promptly stood up and marched over to the Marauders.

All four of them looked up. "Sirius," stated Mary rather loudly, "I want you to go to the dance with me."

Sirius took a moment and looked her up and down. "Was that a request or a demand?" he asked.

"Do I take that as a yes?"

"That depends on if I can snog you right here, right now."

At that, Mary promptly took his hand, dragged him over to an empty couch in the corner, and proceeded to make out with him rather intensely.

Rolling her eyes, Lily turned back to Alice. "Of course," she said. "We should have guessed.

Alice looked at Lily rather curiously. "Lily, who ARE you going to ask?"

"You know, I don't really fancy anyone, but I think I'll ask Remus. After all, he is my best friend, and I can trust him not to grope me or otherwise take advantage of me." At that, Lily got up, walked by the Marauders and said, "Remus, can you come over here for a minute? There's something I need your help with."

Remus, curious, got up and followed her out of earshot of the others in the common room (not that Mary and Sirius were listening very closely). "Remus, will you go to the Spring Dance with me?"

Remus' eyes widened and a pink tinge crept on to his usually pale cheeks. "Um… Uh… Well…" he stammered. Finally, he was able to say, "Sure! Of course!"

"Oh, thank you, Remus!" squealed Lily, and with a kiss on the cheek, she left a rather dazed Remus in the corner and skipped back over to Alice, who had been watching from her spot by the fire.

**A/N: Two pages long! I don't know how this is going to develop, but I can promise that it will be exciting! Please, please, PLEASE review! This is only my third fanfic for Harry Potter, so I want to know what you all think.**


	2. The Arguement

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Do I look like J.K. Rowling to you?**

Lily climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room three nights later to find James Potter sitting on the couch by the fire, twiddling his wand and looking anxious. James looked up at the noise of the portrait hole closing and saw Lily. He jumped up and tried in vain to flatten his hair.

"Hello, Lily," he said rather nervously. "Can I talk to you?"

"What do you want, Potter?" Lily asked rather unkindly. She was not about to be nice to a boy who had tormented her every day since second year.

"I wish you would call me James, Lily," he said.

"And I wish you would leave me alone, Potter, but it looks like neither of us are going to get what we want."

"Anyway," continued James, "I was wondering if you had a date to the dance yet."

"Don't even think about asking me, James Potter. You know that it's ladies' choice. Besides, I'm already going with someone."

James seemed to deflate before Lily's eyes. "Oh. Who?"

"You mean you honestly don't know?" she replied scathingly. "I thought that you knew EVERYTHING."

"Just tell me who you're going with!" said James. He was starting to get angry, and as a result, his volume of his voice began to rise.

"Fine. If you really want to know, I am going with none other than your friend, Remus 'Moony' Lupin."

James looked as though he had been slapped. Lily took the opportunity to dash up the girls' staircase without so much as a good night.

The next morning (a Saturday), Lily was awakened the next morning by shrieking coming from the next bed.

"He said yes!!!!!" screamed Alice.

"Huhwah? Hoosayas?" asked Mary rather unintelligibly.

"Frank! Frank Longbottom! He agreed to be my date to the dance!"

Lily dashed over to the next bed and gave her best friend a hug. They talked happily while taking their time getting ready.

"So now that we all have dates," said Mary, "We have to decide what to wear! Ohmigod, we only have a week! It's a good thing that we get to go into Hogsmeade today. We're going to look so fabulous!" If there was one thing in the world that Mary was very passionate about, it was fashion.

After breakfast, the three girls made their way down to Hogsmeade, the nearby wizarding village. They ran into the first boutique they saw and started looking for dresses. After a few hours, each girl had found the perfect dress and the three friends decided to celebrate by treating themselves to some butterbeer.

A little while on, when Lily had excused herself to go to the bathroom, she heard someone being shoved up against a wall and low, angry muttering. She cast a Disillusion Spell on herself and stepped around the corner to see what was going on. To her horror, she saw James Potter holding Remus Lupin to the wall with one hand, the other raising his wand in front of Remus' face.

Remus was saying, "I just don't see what the big deal is, Prongs, she wouldn't have asked you to go even if I had said no!"

"That's not the point, Moony!" spat James. "You're supposed to be my friend, you shouldn't have accepted an invitation to the dance with the girl that I fancy!"

"Well, it's not as if she fancies you back! She hates you, and you know it!"

"No, she doesn't! She may not realize it, but we are meant for each other! In fact, I bet she only asked you because she's scared to admit that she's in love with me."

"I'll leave you to your fantasies and go finish my butterbeer, thank you very much." With that, Remus broke free of James' grip and headed straight toward Lily.

Only by jumping very quickly to the side did Lily manage to avoid being run over by Remus. James waited for a moment, breathing heavily, before he followed Remus back into the bar. Lily just sat there on the floor of the Three Broomsticks for a while, thinking, until Alice came looking for her.

**A/N: Still don't know where this is going, but I have a bit clearer picture in my head now. I am really thankful for the reviews that I have so far! Please keep reviewing!!!!!**


	3. The Refusal

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I am not J.K. Rowling and therefore I own nothing but the plot.**

Ever since Lily had heard that conversation in the Three Broomsticks, she had been doing a lot of thinking. Could Potter really be that _arrogant_? She asked Remus because she wanted to go with him, not because she was in love with Potter! Right?

_NO!_ she scolded herself mentally. _You do NOT love James Potter. He is an arrogant toerag that doesn't deserve his position as Head Boy. He has tormented you for six years. You do NOT love him._

Since that conversation, three more days had passed, and it was the Wednesday before the dance. Lily thanked God, because Wednesday was the one day a week that she didn't share a class with Pothead Potter.

First she had Potions, which Potter was too stupid to take.

Next she had Arithmancy, which Potter had not signed up for in third year.

She then had a free period that she, fortunately, could spend outside of his not-so-charming company.

She then had lunch, which she could spend with Mary and Alice.

Then, she had Ancient Runes, her last class of the day, which Potter considered a stupid subject.

Fortunately, she got to have Remus in all of her classes. Unfortunately, she also had to share them with Snape, plus a whole lot of other boys who were staring at her, waiting for her to ask them to the dance.

See, Lily Evans was very pretty. Some even described her as beautiful. She had wavy red hair that fell right across her shoulder blades. She had emerald green eyes that were in the shapes of almonds. Lily actually hated her eyes. She thought that she would rather have brown eyes, or blue eyes, because everyone expected redheads to have green eyes. She had beautiful skin, and the freckles across the bridge of her nose only made her look prettier. Needless to say, Mary always wanted to do a makeover on her.

Lily actually hated being pretty, only because boys were always panting after her. It made it very difficult to concentrate on schoolwork. By Ancient Runes, Lily felt like standing up in the middle of the professor's lecture and saying, "Look, I already have a date, okay? So stop staring at me!"

She found later that she didn't need to. On the way down to dinner, a rather handsome Ravenclaw by the name of Joseph MacDougall walked up to her and practically shouted, "So, Lily, I hear that you haven't asked anyone to the dance yet."

"Not that it's any of your business or anything," Lily muttered, because Joseph had been one of the boys staring at her during Potions.

"So," continued MacDougall, "Would you like to ask me to the dance?"

"Oh, Joseph," she said sweetly, "I really would love to, but you see, I already ASKED someone else. A week ago, actually!" She batted her long eyelashes at him.

MacDougall looked like he had been hit over the head with a club. Then he ran off, probably to warn his friends not to try what he had just tried. Much happier, Lily and her friends continued walking down to dinner.

While Lily was finishing her homework that night, she heard a bit of a scuffle outside the portrait hole. She got up off of the couch to go take a look. She cracked open the portrait hole so that she could peek out. Outside it was James Potter, making out with Carissa Stewart from Hufflepuff. Suddenly Carissa broke off the kiss.

"Do I take that as a yes, then?" she asked with a sly grin on her face. James just smiled and led her off into an empty classroom.

Lily slowly shut the portrait hole. She got up and walked over to the couch and sat down with a thud. Stewart? Potter was going to the dance with _Stewart_? Stewart couldn't even cast a basic Aguamenti Charm, or make a simple shrinking solution! She was one of the least intelligent girls in the school! Lily was of the opinion that she used so much hairspray that it had eventually it had melted her brain into a pile of go that sloshed around in her head. So why was James going to the dance with her?

She was only slightly pretty. With bleached hair and a fake tan, she wouldn't have gotten any guys attention if she didn't wear layers of makeup on her pinched, narrow face. So _why_ was Potter going to the dance with her?

The first theory that came to mind was that he was getting desperate. After all, the dance was only three days away, and the Head Boy would look really stupid without a date. Stewart was probably the only girl that had asked him. Lily smirked at the thought.

The second theory was that Potter had accepted a date with the one person that Lily disliked that wasn't Slytherin to make her, Lily Evans, feel jealous. Ha! _Jealous?_ Of _Stewart?_ As if!

Lily smirked evilly. If Potter wanted to try and make her jealous, then let him try. Hopefully, he would be trying so hard that he would stay out of her hair until after the dance!

**A/N: Hello again! The story is actually coming along very well now! It's practically writing itself. Please keep reviewing!**


	4. The Dance

**Disclaimer: It's so far into the story that I really don't see the need to write this, but I AM NOT J.K. ROWLING. I own nothing but the plot and a few of the characters that I came up with. There is also a song in this chapter, and I don't own that either. Yes, I know that the song did not exist back then.**

Lily was awoken on Saturday morning by a pillow hitting her in the face. She sat up abruptly, looking around. Mary was standing over her, laughing her head off.

"Mary!" screamed Lily. "What the bloody hell was that for?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Princess, it's eleven o'clock," said Mary.

"What?!?!?" shrieked Lily. She ripped the clock off of her bedside table. It was true. She only had seven hours to look totally perfect. AND she hadn't eaten breakfast yet. "CRAP!!!!! Wake up Alice! I have to get dressed for breakfast!"

Once the trio had finished breakfast, they sprinted back up to Gryffindor tower. They each took their time taking showers, and by the time they were ready to start actually getting ready, it was getting late. The dance started at six, and they wanted to be downstairs at five thirty, which meant that they had to be ready by five. That left them only three hours, or one hour per girl, because they agreed to help each other.

First, they started in on Alice. Alice had chosen a bright yellow (that was one of the colors of Hufflepuff, after all), strapless bubble dress that she looked absolutely amazing in. There was a small knot in the front that looked like a rose. For her hair, Mary put a charm on it so that it flipped out a little bit. She was wearing white sandals with a one-inch heel, to give her some height (Frank was very tall). The girls had agreed earlier to be understated with the make-up.

Next, Alice and Lily started in on Mary. Mary had chosen a beautiful pink V-neck with silver circular rings connecting the straps. Alice tied her long black hair up onto the top of her head, and Lily cast a charm that made it curl into ringlets. Mary wore black stilettos, which she knew that Sirius loved.

Lastly, the two girls started in on Lily. Lily had chosen an absolutely beautiful sky-blue, spaghetti-strap dress with silver sparkles. The girls left her hair down, but charmed it so that it fell in soft curls down her shoulders and back. Because she was very tall, Lily wore a pair of simple white flats.

Satisfied that they were ready, the girls made their way downstairs to the common room, where the boys were probably waiting for them.

When Sirius and Remus saw their dates, their jaws dropped. Both of them were wearing black tuxedoes and had on bowties. Sirius' was black (hehehe) and Remus' was green, to match Lily's eyes. Alice excused herself to go down to the entrance hall where she had said she would meet Frank. Lily supposed that James and Peter were already down there.

"Wow," said Remus as Lily walked up to him. "You look... beautiful."

Lily smiled shyly. "You look rather handsome yourself."

Remus was too shocked to say anything more as he slipped a corsage on her wrist (White Calla Lily), took her arm, and led her out of the portrait hole after Sirius and Mary.

Down in the entrance hall, the three girls and their dates talked and laughed for about ten minutes, at which time the doors to the Great Hall opened and everyone was permitted to enter the hall. Lily gasped.

The hall looked so beautiful! Up where the House Points were usually shown, there was large fountain. There were small tables seating five couples each placed around the outside of the hall, instead of the usual house tables. There was a golden dance floor in the middle of the hall, and the lights were dimmed so that it seemed as if they were all outside on a warm summer evening rather than in the Great Hall in the middle of spring.

All of the couples sat down at the smaller tables. At Lily and Remus' table sat Sirius and Mary, Alice and Frank, James and Carissa, and Peter and his date, a Hufflepuff named Janice emerald. Lily noticed that James gave her a pointed look as he sat down next to Stewart.

Lily spent much of the dinner happily talking to Remus, who could not stop smiling. When dinner was finally over, Dumbledore asked the heads and their partners to take the floor for the first dance. Lily and Remus embarrassedly went out onto the golden floor, followed closely by James and Carissa. A slow song struck up, and Lily and Remus took hold of each other and began to rotate on the spot. A few feet away, James and Carissa did the same.

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air_

_If I should die before I wake_

_It's 'cause you took my breath away_

_Losing you is like living in a world with no air_

_Oh_

_I'm here alone, didn't wanna leave_

_My heart won't move, it's incomplete_

_Wish there was a way that I can make you understand_

_But how do you expect me_

_To live alone with just me_

_'Cause my world revolves around you_

_It's so hard for me to breathe_

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air_

_Can't live, can't breathe with no air_

_It's how I feel whenever you ain't there_

_It's no air, no air_

_Got me out here in the water so deep_

_Tell me how you gonna be without me_

_If you ain't here, I just can't breathe_

_It's no appearance, no air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

_I walked, I ran, I jumped, I flew_

_Right off the ground to float to you_

_There's no gravity to hold me down for real_

_But somehow I'm still alive inside_

_You took my breath, but I survived_

_I don't know how, but I don't even care_

_So how do you expect me_

_To live alone with just me_

_'Cause my world revolves around you_

_It's so hard for me to breathe_

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air_

_Can't live, can't breathe with no air_

_It's how I feel whenever you ain't there_

_It's no air, no air_

_Got me out here in the water so deep_

_Tell me how you gonna be without me_

_If you ain't here, I just can't breathe_

_It's no air, no air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

_No more_

_It's no air, no air_

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air_

_Can't live, can't breathe with no air_

_It's how I feel whenever you ain't there_

_It's no air, no air_

_Got me out here in the water so deep_

_Tell me how you gonna be without me_

_If you ain't here, I just can't breathe_

_It's no air, no air_

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air_

_Can't live, can't breathe with no air_

_It's how I feel whenever you ain't there_

_It's no air, no air_

_Got me out here in the water so deep_

_Tell me how you gonna be without me_

_If you ain't here, I just can't breathe_

_It's no air, no air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

_No air, air_

As the song ended, Lily and Remus broke apart, as did James and Carissa. The students clapped, and then joined them on the dance floor when a faster song started up. Lily saw Mary and Sirius tucked away in a corner, much too busy to dance, and saw Alice and Frank just swaying back and forth, looking into each other's eyes. The rest of the evening passed in a whirl of laughter and fun for Lily and Remus, and when they returned to Gryffindor Tower after the dance was over, they agreed that it was the best night ever.

**A/N: I liked writing that, it was fun! Please don't laugh at me for my bad descriptions of the girls, I actually suck at fashion. There are links to pictures of their dresses on my profile page if you would like to see them. Please review! The next chapter should be up soon because I, of course, am grounded (Thanks, Mom)! Again, I KNOW that 'No Air' wasn't written until after Lily was dead, but I can dream, can't I?**


	5. The Persuasion

**Disclaimer: Although I am flattered that you think that I am J.K. Rowling, I sadly must inform you that I indeed do not own anything but the plot.**

**Before this chapter starts, I want to thank ****Fantabulicious xx3**** for being a regular reviewer. Thanks for the awesome compliments! I'm glad you like the story so far!**

Lily was curled up under a blanket on a couch by the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room reading one of her favorite books from the Muggle world, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Her head was resting against the shoulder of Remus, who was sitting next to her, reading Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, which he had loved ever since it had been an assignment in Muggle Studies class. No one else was in the common room, as it was late. Exams were finished, and the seventh years were using the free time to do everything that they had wanted to do over the past seven years. This involved a lot of staying up late, breaking of the rules, and all around misbehavior.

Remus sighed and closed his book. "Lily?" he said softly.

"Hmm?" she replied dreamily, still absorbed in her book.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Of course, Remus." Lily marked her page, closed the book, and laid it on her lap. "What's on your mind?"

"Well," said Remus hesitantly. "It's James. He's been acting a bit… funny... since the dance, and I was wondering, do you know anything about it?"

Lily was startled. She had not expected to him to want to talk about this. The truth was, she had noticed it, too. The way he didn't look up from his breakfast, how he would sit quietly in the corner until Sirius noticed him and dragged him off to do who-knows-what to some unsuspecting victim.

"Well," she began slowly. "I suppose it could have something to do with Carissa dumping him in front of the entire school because she had a horrible time, couldn't it?"

"I thought of that. It just doesn't seem that likely. I mean, James never liked her very much anyway. I understand that he was responsible for that purple rash she got back in fourth year."  
Lily looked up at him in surprise. "Really? I never knew that."

"Oh yes," said Remus with a small smile on his face. "That and the blue hair, the buck teeth, the horrible odor, just to name a few. Of course, she never suspected him."

"Huh," said Lily. Inside, it gave her a warm glow to know that Potter disliked Stewart as much as she did. "So what was your theory?"

"Well," began Remus, "Judging by the fact that he has been rather distant with me as well, I kind of thought that it could be that he thinks that we are, uh, well, dating." Remus was no longer smiling. On the contrary, he looked rather awkward.

"Oh!" Lily was taken aback. Potter thought that she and Remus were dating? But they were just friends! She felt a sudden pity toward James Potter. According to Remus, he had fancied her for six years. Six years! And all of a sudden she asks one of his best mates to the last dance ever! She sat quietly for a while consumed in her own thoughts, and Remus sat consumed in his.

"Well," said Remus after a few moments of silence, "I could be completely wrong, of course. I mean, there could be a million other reasons why-"

"No," interrupted Lily quietly. "No, I think that you hit it dead on. James is jealous. Jealous of you."

They sat in silence for a while longer.

"So, what do you think we should do about it?" asked Remus tentatively.

"Do?" asked Lily incredulously. "I'm not sure if there's anything that we can do about it. We aren't dating, so there's no logical way for us to break up. You say that he isn't really talking to you, so it would be kind of difficult for you to discuss it with him. What do you think we should do?"

"Well, I had the idea, that maybe if _you_ tried talking to him-"

"No. Absolutely not. I refuse to talk to that boy, he is just too immature. I mean, can you believe that Dumbledore made _him_ Head Boy? It should have been you!"

"Well, Lily, if you haven't noticed, James has grown up a lot. He doesn't curse Snape anymore, he doesn't ask you out constantly, and he doesn't brag about himself anymore. He really has grown up a lot."

"Even still," protested Lily, "There is no way that I can talk about the subject of us dating. It would be mortifying beyond belief. Are you sure that Sirius can't talk to him?" Lily was desperate.

"No way, Lily. Padfoot is taking James' side in this battle, there's no way that he would want to play peacemaker."

Lily groaned in exasperation. Was Potter really going to ruin the last couple weeks of school for her?

"Please, Lily," said Remus softly, looking directly into her eyes. "Please, just try."

What else could she do?

"Okay," she whispered.

**A/N: What do you think? Starting to get more of a hint of where the story is going? Please review and tell me what you think, or better yet give suggestions! Sorry that this chapter was so short, I got the idea at 10:00 at night (it is now 11:00) and I am wicked tired.**


	6. The Conversation

**Disclaimer: I feel no need to write this, as I am sure that you already know by my somewhat cheesy writing you already know that I am not J. K. Rowling, and therefore own but a few of the characters (the ones you've never heard of) and the plot.**

Lily paced back and forth in front of the Seventh Year boys' dormitory. She had to admit it to herself: she was nervous. She was about to go and have a talk about her love life with the person who had tormented her for the past six years. To hell with nervous. She was petrified. What if he laughed in her face and told her to get out?

Remus had fixed it so the two of them could talk, with great personal sacrifice. He had let Black talk him into helping with a prank (that involved the Great Hall, a very powerful Switching Spell, and women's lingerie), and had convinced Black to let Pettigrew help. That gave her roughly a half hour to talk to James and convince him that she and Remus weren't dating. Ugh.

She wasted another ten minutes pacing. Remus and crew would be back in about ten minutes. Come on, Lily, she thought to herself. Show some Gryffindor bravery. She pushed open the door.

The dormitory was empty except for Potter, who was sitting on the windowsill, staring out over the Forbidden Forest.

"James?"

He whipped around and nearly fell out of the window. "Lily? What're you doing in here? Did- did you just call me James?"

"I need to talk to you," said Lily, walking over and joining him on the windowsill.

"What about?"

She gathered her courage. "Remus and me."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well?"

"Well, I just think you should know…"

"What?"

"We aren't dating."

James looked surprised. Actually, shocked was probably a better word.

"But- but- you asked him to the dance! And you sit next to each other! And you hold hands and read together on the couches and share those secret looks when you think no one else is looking!" At that last bit, James blushed bright red.

"Because we're great friends," said Lily. "He's my best friend. I would do anything for him, and we are exceptionally close. But it's always been like that for me. Remus too. Neither of us has ever fancied the other."

"Then why did you ask him to the dance?"

"Well, I had to ask someone! The Head Girl can't show up alone to a dance, it would look pathetic! Who else was I going to ask?"

He mumbled something incoherent.

"What was that?"

"I said that could have asked me."

"James, up until about two days ago, I thought I hated you. You've made my life hell for the last six years. Why would I ask you to the last dance again?"

"Oh yeah."

"So why'd you go with Stewart?"

He grimaced, as though the memory were painful to him. "Well, a lot of girls asked me, but I thought that you hadn't asked anyone, so I turned them down. Word got around that I wasn't accepting, I suppose, because the invitations stopped. Stewart was the only one to ask me after you told me you had a date, so I had to accept. Like you said, the Head Boy would look stupid without a date."

"Yeah."

"Why'd you come and talk to me?"

"Because I felt horrible that you're always moping around. You don't go out on your broom, you don't prank people, you haven't cursed anyone. I felt bad that that was all because of me."

James had a funny look on his face.

"What?" asked Lily.

"Lily, when was the last time you actually saw me curse someone?"

Lily thought about that. Actually, she couldn't remember the last time. Oh yes, it had been in February of last year, James had cursed a Slytherin who insulted him. Lily had reported him to McGonnagal, and he had to clean the boys' loo on the third floor for detention.

"Wow, it really has been a long time, hasn't it?" she said.

"Yeah. I don't really miss it though. I get to focus more on Quidditch."

"Brilliant catch in the final, by the way. Right off the top of Yaxley's head!"

"I was lucky. He thought I was attacking him and flew in the opposite direction."

Lily thought about what he had said for a moment. The James Potter she had known for the past six years would have been boasting about the catch, how it was all because of _him_ that they had won the final. The old James Potter would be jinxing people right and left to demonstrate his power as Head Boy. Remus was right. He really had changed.

"James?" she said, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Mmm?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"'Course, Lily, you can ask me anything."

She took a deep breath.

"Will you be my boyfriend?"

This time he actually _did_ fall out the window, but he grabbed onto the ledge and Lily levitated him back up.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Will you be my boyfriend?"

It was worth it when the rest of the Marauders trooped in a few minutes later and saw Lily and James snogging on James' bed.

**A/N: Well, folks, that's the end! This is one of my many versions of how Lily Evans and James Potter came to be together. Hope you enjoyed reading, and please comment!**


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